All Preparation and No Power
By M.T. Clark — P-2047 | 08/20/2026 Today’s Audio Podcast
Today’s Message on YouTube:
Today’s photo of a narrow dirt path winding through lush green woods, with tall trees standing on either side and a thick undergrowth of grasses and leafy plants crowding the trail edges, while dappled sunlight filters down through the dense summer canopy lighting the path, comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this quiet woodland trail along the Borden’s Nature Conservatory in Chatham, NY, on May 22, 2021.
Well, it’s Thursday, and I share this pathway photo as a reminder and an encouragement to get on, or to stay on, the path of Christian discipleship. I took this photo back in May of 2021 on a short solo hike at the Borden’s Nature Conservatory in Chatham, NY, in a season of my life when little walks like this one were doing a lot for my soul.
In May of 2021, I was on the other side of my finalized 2019 divorce, my 2020 exodus to my new house in Stuyvesant, and was well over 6 months free from having to work my second job in the hardware department of the Hudson Walmart. So, for the first time in a long time, I had some free hours to give back to the Lord. I was divorced, free, and a little lonely, and trips to quiet trails like this one gave me a place to be with the Lord and to escape “too much alone time” in my new place down by the river, which I had come to think of as “Monk House,” because I thought I would remain unmarried and die there alone.
But the truth was that the Lord already had good things waiting for me in the future, without my knowing it. I had already met TammyLyn through my podcast and the freedom ministry I was leading at Rock Solid Church, and by the end of 2021. we were engaged and married on January 1st, 2022. These days we walk, hike, and backpack together. When you walk with the Lord, you never walk alone, and He often brings you the company and the love you need, right when you need it.
Speaking of what really powers our walk with the Lord,
Our series, “Win the Morning, Renew Your Mind,” continues today with the one thing every good routine in the world is missing.
All Preparation and No Power
When the prophet Zechariah looked at a rebuilding project that was far too big for the people trying to do it, God gave him a word that cuts to the heart of what it means to live the Christian life, and Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV) delivers it: “So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Not by might. Not by power. But by My Spirit. That single sentence is the difference between the world’s best efforts and the life that God offers.
We have to be honest and fair about something. The world has figured out a great deal about the importance of morning routines and the mind, and much of it is true. The world has learned and taught that what we take in first influences our whole day. It has taught that identity drives our behaviors, that we tend to see what we look for, and that small consistent steps change a life over time. There are people who have never opened a Bible teaching morning routines that sound remarkably close to what David and Jesus practiced. And we can admit that where those things are true, they are true, because all truth is God’s truth, and God isn’t threatened when His creatures stumble onto the way that He made the world to work.
But when morning routines are taught without reference to the Lord, there is a hole right in the middle of even the best teaching of it. And the thing they miss is the most important thing of all. The world’s version of a morning routine is all preparation and no Power. It has the practice, but it doesn’t have the Presence. The secular world teaches us to center ourselves, but it can’t bring us to God.
The world’s morning routines teach us to build a better identity, but they can’t give us the new one that only Christ can create. They teach us to reprogram our minds by our own willpower and for our own better outcomes, and they leave us, at the end of the day, still relying on the one resource that always eventually runs dry, which is us. The world’s morning practices are a beautiful vehicle with no fuel. They are lamps with no oil. They teach might and power without the Spirit, and God says plainly that His work doesn’t get done that way.
That is what Zechariah heard. The task before Zerubbabel was to rebuild the temple, and it was impossible by human strength. There were too few people, too many enemies, and the mountain in front of them was too great. And God didn’t respond by giving them a better strategy or telling them to try harder. He told them the work would be done not by their might and not by their power, but by His Spirit. The very thing that made it possible was the very thing no amount of human effort could supply. And what was true for that mountain is true for ours. The renewing of our minds, the putting to death of an old identity, the winning of the morning — none of it happens by our might or our power. It happens by His Spirit, or it doesn’t happen at all.
This is why our morning “quiet time” isn’t a self-improvement project. Let’s be as clear about this as we can. If all we are doing is a Christian-flavored version of the world’s routine, centering ourselves, thinking better thoughts, building a better self by our own effort, then we have kept the shell and lost the substance. The whole point of seeking God first, of setting the mind on things above, and of being still and knowing that He is God, is that we are coming to receive from Someone, not to generate something in ourselves. We are plugging the lamp into the source of the oil. We bring the practice. God brings the Power. And the Power is a Person, the Holy Spirit, who is given to every believer for the purpose of doing in us what we could never do in ourselves.
So, take on a morning practice, but refuse the version that leaves God out. Rise early. Get still. Feed your mind on truth. Take your thoughts captive. But do all of it as someone coming to the Spirit of God to receive, not as someone trying to single-handedly build a better life into existence.
The difference isn’t always visible from the outside. Two people can have the very same morning habit, with one who is running on his own might and the other who is walking with God’s Spirit. Only one of them will still be standing when the strength gives out. The one that is held up by the Lord, through His faith in Jesus Christ, is the one who receive the power to stand for all eternity.
Not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. Let your mornings be spent in the presence of the Lord, and let His Spirit give you the strength, wisdom, and power that you will need for all your days.
Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction. So, keep on walking and talking with God.
— M.T.
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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